O.k., and not to disagree with you in any way, but what was that old deal worth per ounce of gold in ground - at the reserve AND the resource level? Las Cristinas has 10.1 million ounces reserves within a resource base of 21.4 million ounces. In any event, your example helps to support my contention that there have been no recent, reasonable comparable transactions since the (current) price of gold has trended into the present territory, and within an environment supportive of much higher prices ahead. Despite similarities in the price of gold, '96 is not '03 in may ways.
You might consider this, too. Homestake was taken out for around $128 per ounce at much lower gold prices. One of the differences, of course, was that Homestake happened to be a going concern, while Las Cristinas is undeveloped. But, again, POG was much lower at the time. While it is another poor comparison, it does, perhaps, help to support a number within a range of possibilities. On that basis, Homestake is no more an irrelevant example for valuation analysis than is Arequipa, or East Africa Gold Mines. It's just hard to draw straight lines from those numbers to anything strongly suggestive/supportive of value for Las Cristinas.
VP |
